News

Becoming a carer can put incredible stress on a person, so we spoke to Francis Ngale of Carers Network to better understand what defines someone as a carer and what kind of support and rights they are entitled to.

Now that our Inpatient Unit refurbishment is complete, we caught up with Trish McKee, our Senior Staff Nurse, who has been part of the Hospice for 10 years to hear about the difference it has already made.

When you examine what it takes to deliver this level of care every day, it’s crucial to understand just how much time, effort and emotion our staff invest into their jobs – so we decided to take a closer look at the working life of one of our spiritual leaders, Father Hugh.

Gina Pavlo has been a Specialist Occupational Therapist at our Hospice for nine years, so has invaluable insight into what it takes to be a part of our team. We spoke to her about the work that goes into emotionally supporting and caring for our patients through the hardest of times.

We caught up with Soulla Economou – one of our amazing Healthcare Assistants on our Inpatient Unit – to discover what a day in her life looks like. To illustrate just how physically demanding the role is for Soulla and her colleagues, we also tracked the number of steps she took over the course of a day’s work.

When James was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called a chordoma, he was determined to share his experience with others in a similar position, so began to write a book entitled Dancing With Dolores. ‍We sat down with James’s nieces and nephew to discuss who James was, who Dolores was and what the Hospice meant to them.

According to Alzheimer’s Disease International someone in the world develops dementia every 3 seconds. To mark this year's, World Alzheimer’s Awareness Month we wanted to see how our Hospice cares for those living with dementia and Alzheimer’s.‍ Peter Hume, our Hospice Day Care Unit Deputy Manager, tells us more.

At St John’s Hospice we take great pride in the essential palliative care we deliver to our patients – but we don’t often get a chance to stop and recognise all the things that make our Hospice so special. ‍

The impact of COVID-19 is being felt across the charity sector, and unfortunately, St John’s Hospice is no different. Following the pandemic, admissions to our Inpatient Unit are up by over 20% in the first half of the year, yet our fundraising is projected to be down by £1.3 million this year. We need your support to fund our essential, free palliative care.